Christmas, Christmas-time is here...

Kevin flys in to Buffalo tomorrow morning for Christmas! We'll be spending the day shopping in B-town before Christmas Eve at our house and Christmas at my grandparents. Have a wonderful holiday!

Gingerbread Dreams

This weekend I decided to bake gingerbread cookies for the first time. They turned out pretty well, and decorating was blast!

Meet Honeymooning Kev & Em :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Just finished addressing our Christmas postcards [we think they're trendy, fun, and--most important--cheaper than traditional Christmas cards :) ]. Best part...we got to use our failed photo booth save-the-date pictures.  Here's a preview:

In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to combine our Christmas card and our save-the-dates, since they'll both be going out at about the same time, and to many of the same people...but who would be clever enough to think of that in advance? Clearly not us. 

In more good news, we're in negotiations with a reception hall that looks like it might be the one...yay! Hopefully we can hammer out the details by next week and put down the deposit in time to have a relaxing Christmas. Kevin will be coming to Erie for our first Christmas together :) 

Hope your Advent season is shaping up to be merry and bright, even if you're buried in 4 feet of snow like Erie!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Kevin and I spent Thanksgiving together for the first time in New Jersey with the Orlofski clan. We sat at the kids' table and played Beatles Rock Band after dinner...my fav! It was wonderful to spend time with the family, and of course, to enjoy the turkey.

Friday was spent moving all of our "stuff"--Kevin's furniture from his apartment in Rochester and our engagement gifts--from Kev's storage unit to some extra space in his dad's warehouse. A lot of work, but after the long day we had a great dinner out with Dad & Mom O and Kristy.

On Saturday I got to sleep in while Kevin took to the rink for the annual post-Thanksgiving NY/NJ hockey game. Then we headed south for a surprise outdoor laser tag birthday party (it was AWESOME) and then home to clean up before our first Advent fellowship of the season at the Hoefners' home. Very busy but very fun.

Kevin taught religious instruction class in Wharton on Sunday morning (while I drove around in search of some breakfast) and then we were off to Wayne congregation for youth service. The Advent bible verse was from John 3:30, "He must increase but I must decrease," which was the verse for my missionary trip to Uganda two years ago. It brought back a lot of wonderful memories. After a great service, we headed back to the Orlofskis' for a Thanks-mas gathering. We watched the movie "Elf" and  had an insightful discussion about being excited for the Lord's Return. "I KNOW him!"

It was hard to get on the plane after such a pleasant few days, and even harder when my flight was delayed, and then delayed again. Even worse, I returned to 30 degree weather and the remnants of snow! But eventually I made it home and started missing Kevin again.

Wedding plans are coming along slowly but surely. My mom and I have an appointment with the reception hall coordinator on Wednesday. Our save-the-dates are sitting on my desk, patiently waiting to be mailed once the guest list is finalized and the reception venue booked. The guest list process is so painful...we wish we could just invite everyone!

Not the Dress (Con't)

More dresses that didn't quite make the cut...

The "Wilma Flintstone"

  

Actually really liked this one, but didn't pass the Mom & Gramma test :)  


My English garden tea party dress
  

Too normal...and glittery.
    

Loving these...

Amazingly, I've had a small amount of free time over the past few days and I've done some wedding research (aka Facebook stalking recent newlyweds and wedding photographers, and doting over DYI wedding blogs and websites). Some things I'm loving at the moment:

The colors of this bouquet and the groom's tie

The adorable simplicity of this cake.

Everything 1950's.

ORANGE.

Typewriter guestbook. And I have a typewriter just like this one ^^

























Telegraph programs. Very retro.

We'll see how many of these ideas I can talk Kevin into ;)

Save the Dates

Since our wedding is on a holiday weekend, we thought it wise to send out save-the-dates. We love photo booths, so our original save-the-date idea was going to look like this:

Unfortunately, our words were too small, and there was no easy way to get the photo strip look on a standard postcard or magnet. Then we got our engagement photos from Brian, loved them, and decided to use one for the final product. We ordered them last week, and will be putting them together and sending them out (hopefully) by next week. I'll post a picture once they're in the mail :)

True Blue

This past weekend, we attended two great events: the Rangers' season opener against the Sabres at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo (Rookie Stepan completed a hat trick and the Rangers won it 6-3) and Matt Raich & Katie Felt's beautiful wedding. It was great to witness another couple's celebration of love, and made us more excited for our big day :)

Not the Dress

Now that my dress is ordered and on its way, I thought it might be fun to share some photos of dresses that I did not say "yes" to :) The first couple are from my very first bridal appointment with my mom, Kim, Renee, and Lauren. As you can see from the look on my face, I'm already overwhelmed. The last one is a dress I seriously considered because it looked fantastic and it was very vintage, but in the end I went with something completely different in every possible way. (I have a couple more on another camera that I'll upload later.)

Bet you're wondering what I ended up with? You'll just have to wait and see!

Engagement Photos (2)

Just got our engagement photos from Brian on Friday, and they are--as anticipated--wonderful. A few of our tops picks are below, and there's a link to the Facebook album with the rest of our favorites. Brian sure made us look good :)

See more of us here.

A Busy Saturday

Kevin and I spent the entire day last Saturday checking out reception venues. Unfortunately we didn't have much luck. The halls we looked at were either too small or too boring. But we were at least able to cross a bunch off the list.

We also started our pre-marital counseling classes with Ev. Peter Wagner. The program is called Prepare & Enrich, and it's really cool so far. It was a pleasant but exhausting day.

Other than that, I've been spending most of my time searching for the perfect shade of orange bridesmaid dresses. Love these...but the fabric and/or price may not be right:

The search continues!

Engagement Photos (1)

Brian uploaded a few of our engagement photos onto his photography blog so you can check them out! We'll upload our favorites here and on Facebook when we get the picture disk. They're just beautiful :)

Thank you Brian (and assistant Danielle for carrying the flash)!

Sneaky Peaky!

We should be getting our engagement photos soon...in the mean time, Brian sent us a preview to titillate our anticipation:

Yup, we wore Rangers jersey for a few shots. I'm pretty sure this will be Kev's favorite :)

How Do I Thank Thee? Let Me Count the Ways...

What a great weekend!

Saturday was our dinner date & engagement photo shoot with Brian & Danielle Fendt. It was a great evening with friends. And I'm really looking forward to seeing the pictures--Brian's amazing, especially if he can make Kevin & I look good ;)

We had a great family dinner on Sunday, and then (after a nap, of course) Kev & I spent the whole afternoon & evening writing out thank you cards. Good quality time together :) Kevin also gave me a copy of the engagement blessing video, audio, and the photos from Tim & Michelle. I'll post a couple here and a link to Facebook where you can see more.

Click to see more of our beautiful faces!

‎"Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that." Ephesians 5:2

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Tomorrow is my first official wedding-related appointment,with Jennifer Photography. We're looking for a photographer with an arsty edge...hopefully it won't be too stressful. Kev & I are total Facebook creepers, and we are loving these photos from the weddings of some of our friends:

    

(That last one even goes with our orange color scheme!)

Tomorrow afternoon its off to New Jersey to have our engagement photos taken by the highly-talented Brian Fendt from Reflections Photography. If only I knew what to wear!

Oh, and we officially have an officiant :) but we'll keep you guessing as to who it is.

Dreams of Cabo...

Kevin officially booked our honeymoon last night for Cabo San Lucas at this absolutely beautiful resort: the Hacienda Encantada. Daydreams of this place will definitely get me through my last year of college and help both of us through the wedding chaos :)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Danny & Annie's Love Story

A friend shared this with me and I thought it worth posting up here. Keep a tissue close by.

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Hello Peeps!

Thanks for checking out our blog! Don't forget to visit the links to the right
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And please sign the Guestbook! Thanks :)

We have a date!

After waiting for over a month with baited breath, we have finally set our wedding date:

That's JULY 3, 2011. Only 306 days away!
Yay! Pencil us in please :)